Construction and Technology -Assignment 2
Chong Khei Mink (Felicia)
0322359
Construction and Technology -Assignment 2
For this assignment ,after briefing from Ms Sharon, we are asked to create a skeletal structure of a basic building (footings, 4 columns, beams and slab) using rough paper as core reinforcement and plasticine as a cover material.
Process:
Firstly, we rolled the paper to replace the wire mesh and it acted as core reinforcement.
We wrapped the rolled paper with plasticine which acted as concrete (cement). This would be added into the footing, to strengthen it.
Furthermore, we decided to flatten the orange plasticine into a cuboid,acted as the footing.
I cut off the sides, to create edges.
The footing is done.
Next, we put the four column on top of the footing.
.After wrapping them up with cement(plasticine), a column is done. This progress is repeated to produce 4 columns.
Now in the footing there's steel (rolled paper) acted as steel cage as well in order to let it support the loads.
This is the final look of the whole structure.
This is the sample Ms. Sharon used to show us. This is actually a real model using cement and steel.
What I learnt throughout this assignment :
Core reinforcement is used because although concrete itself is strong enough in compression, it is virtually without strength in tension. To compensate for this, steel is cast into it to support the tensile loads on a structure. Besides, based on the picture shown above, we can see there's black paper box acting as a formwork. Formwork is a temporary or permanent mould into which concrete are poured. Good concrete cannot be made from a poor mould, thus formwork is very important in producing good concrete.
Picture on the left shows the formwork for a concrete column, it is made by timber.
During the class, I remember that I've asked Ms.Sharon about, "Is the formwork being thrown away after using it for one time? " Ms.Sharon said yes but it depends, so building a house actually need a lot of wood and stuff, she also said that if some they're still in good condition then they might be used again.
Thus, I actually did some research about this , I noticed that there's a type of reusable formwork called Re-useable plastic formwork. Based on the information I got from internet, Moladi, a South African company, specialises in this reusable plastic formwork for use in construction of affordable housing and low cost housing projects. I think it's a really good invention as it's reusable so there won't be so much wood to be disposed. Furthermore, Steel cage is used in the construction of building footing. So we added rolled paper in our footings.The steel cages are in the process of being laid out before the concrete is poured.
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